Teddy Bear Girl
by onewhowatches
Summary: The Justice League have a hard job keeping snarky sarcastic Kendel Barker safe. Teamed with the X-Men and the League, can three girls grow up, open up, and keep one girl from being used to destroy them all? Full sum inside. R&R?


Full Sum: The Justice League have a hard job keeping snarky sarcastic Kendel Barker safe. Teamed with the X-Men and the League, can three girls grow up, open up, and keep one girl from being used to destroy them all? Will even their combined strengths save Kendel from a man seen only in her dreams, or will they cause the destruction of the entire world itself?

Disclaimer: THIS ISN'T MINE. Never, has; never will be. I am getting no profit from this, unless you count the love and adoration of countless reviewers.

Hopefully.

George: Heh, I'm here too.

Me: Why?! Aren't you supposed to be somewhere else? Like, in heck!

George: No. Now, enjoy, people, or the zombie plot bunnies will eat you.

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Her voice was low as she read to her audience. Despite her apparent calmness, no one could have thought she was tormented, beyond all description.

And the only one who might have been able to see was gone, up in his watchtower, protecting the world best he could.

She couldn't hate him for it, but she almost did anyways. She couldn't help but feel a modicum of betrayal and loneliness every time he went to do his job. She respected him for doing something she never could: patiently watching and guarding; never wavering in his duty. She was sure she would have done an average job, but focusing on something other than the words in her head was hard for her to do.

And she remembered who had tried to take them away from her. They had nearly succeeded, but they didn't know that the words didn't come from her powers, but her soul, mind and heart. Very rarely did she tell where her words lived, bubbling in excitement or anxiousness, waiting for their turn to be written down. When her powers had come to her and her siblings at various ages of babyhood, they had been suppressed by the horrors of their parents. All but the youngest suffered from some sort of trauma from their abusive environment.

No, that's a lie, she thought. My little sister has anger, just like the rest of us. Except for Vicky. Her audience hardly noticed as she stumbled over her words, as she thought of her best friend in the whole world and universe. She kept reading though, because she had bent under the wait of their eagerness and promised. She hadn't known how much her mind would wander to the past.

"I'm sorry," she said suddenly, stopping the minute she had finished the current sentence, "but I want to tell a different story, one that's just forming in my mind."

The Professor brought out a tape recorder, different from the one he was using to record her soft voice before. "Kendel, you can do whatever you wish," he said in that calming, always gentle voice of his. "Just remember that not everyone has experienced your gift before."

"There's no need to worry, remember?" she told him. "They took it from me, all of it. Even my wings."

"I remember," he said. "But the rest of those who had their powers have had them returned to them."

"There are always exceptions to every rule," she reminded him. And, unable to resist the old spark, she added, "Except for gravity."

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"Why do _we_ always have to get the stupid jobs?" Flash asked J'onn J'zonn.

"I have heard that nothing is stupid about this girl," replied the Martian in his deep, ever tranquil voice. "Despite many attempts to find her, the one seeking her protection only just did recently."

"That may be so," Flash said, "but I wanna do something other than watch over some bratty teenager. Why does she even _need_ bodyguards, anyways?"

J'onn J'zonn shrugged. Human body language and subtle nuances were coming easier to him. Pretty soon, he would be able to blend in nearly perfectly. He just needed to master his accents. He tried not to think of his complete failure to find even a small grasp on casual, informal language. The best he could manage was contractions, and they only made him sound less distant and 'stuffy', as the Flash put it.

"That is for our emp to know," he finally said, breaking from his thoughts. "However, we did get a warning on her lack of medication. The man said she needed a refill."

"An' 'e's white," said a slightly muffled female voice. "Ooeder 'ee isd."

Flash turned around. "What?" he asked, confused.

A small girl spat out a bag, and caught it with her foot. "He's right," she said. "I'm gonna need a refill soon, or I'll run out. I do _not_ want that to happen."

"Is it correct to assume that you are Kendel Barker?" J'onn J'zonn asked.

She stared at him awhile, obviously fascinated by his appearance, though she did a good job of hiding it.

"Is it correct to assume that _you _are the Martian Manhunter?" she asked back sarcastically, making fun of his formal tone. Not that he had much of one; it was almost monotonous.

"Yes," he answered, seemingly unfazed by her remark. "And that is the Flash."

She swept her black hair out her face before letting it fall back again. "Could you help me?" she asked suddenly after a moment or two of thinking. "I'd like to carry all this crap myself, you know, to protect myself from being emasculated, but there's only so much my wimpy little girl shoulders can do."

The Flash looked at her a moment, then shrugged. "Whatever, Miss Masculine," he said. "How much did you bring?"

She flushed. "_Way_ more than I'd, uh, intended to," she said. "But I just couldn't leave some stuff behind, and that lead to me bringing almost the entire contents of my room, and then some." She winced. "Girlie, I know, but I just _couldn't_."

J'onn felt a wave of homesickness and the pain that went with it before the girl blocked it off. He gazed at her. So, he mused, perhaps a latent empath? Or just good at hiding herself away.

Flash came out of the trailer that was hitched up to the car the girl had arrived in. "J'onn, I think we need the Bats, and his car. There's no _way_ we're gonna be able to get this stuff anywhere without it being in the trailer!" He popped his head back in, scanning the contents. "Yeah, definitely need the Batman. You think he'll help?"

"He must," J'onn said. "This is as much his assignment as it is ours."

The girl's eyes widened. "The _Batman_ is my bodyguard too?" she exclaimed in shock, her voice squeaking at the end. "That's-that's just-"

"What's it just?" Flash asked.

"It's just silly, that's what!" She said loudly. "I mean, who would send _him_ to guard _me_? It's not like I'm going to blow up, or the Joker is out to get me." She paused. "I don't _think_ he is, anyways. I've never met him. Just read about him in books, and stuff. I'm just glad he's never come to _my_ home to wreak havoc."

The Flash shrugged. "Don't ask me," he said. "I'm pretty much in the dark. The whole case was on the DL until Supes announced it yesterday. Said the person requesting the guard was specific about what he wanted, but had a hard time deciding _who exactly _he wanted. Very weird, and complicated."

"Yeah," she said. "I could see how hard that would be for you to understand."

Flash glared at her, incensed by her nasty, sarcastic tone. Well, he thought, _she's_ the biggest smartmouthed girl I've ever had the displeasure of meeting.

The small smile on her face went unnoticed. That's because, just then, a sleek, pointed car pulled up from out of nowhere, coming to a stop directly in front of them. The girl flinched, surprised by the driver's lack of manners and ignorance of the speed limit. A man clothed in a black suit and cowl stepped from the suicide door. "What do you want this time?" Batman said, annoyed. "I'm not letting you borrow the car, especially not for a date with another of your little girlfriends."

The girl tensed, and said in a quite disgusted tone of voice, "Ew. There is no way in _heck_ I'd date that goof! And I'm _not_ little. I'm vertically challenged."

Batman stared down at her. "Whatever you say," he said. His deep, hoarse voice sounded unamused, and mad. "J'onn, why am I here again? And why is there a trailer over there?"

The Flash grinned. "Hey, Bats, you got a trailer hitch?"

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Kendel sat in the Batmobile, trying not to touch anything. It all looked so expensive, and she was wary around things that cost a lot of money. Especially if it was over the seventy dollar mark. And this all looked like it cost thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands. However, shoes that cost more than forty dollars that weren't meant for formal dinners and whatnot, made her angry enough to spit. In her opinion, it was a colossal waste of money, and she always had this overwhelming urge to rip them all to little pieces, stomp on them a few times, then maybe throw them in a volcano.

"So, how far away is this place we're goin' to anyways?" she asked.

"Just wait," Batman said. "You'll be riding to the Watchtower in some new rocket Superman bought. It's better than going up in my ship. Not as much turbulence in the lower atmosphere."

Her eyes widened when he mentioned flying. "You mean," she said slowly, "that I'm going to fly?"

Batman glanced at her. "Yes."

She closed her eyes. "Awesome," she whispered.

The Flash knew none of that conversation, because he was riding in the trailer with J'onn. "This is SO not fair," he wailed. "How come _she_ gets to ride in the car, and we're stuck back here?"

"Because it is easier for Batman to watch her when she is next to him," J'onn said, unperturbed by his riding in the trailer. "And this will give us a chance to place trackers on her belongings." He reached into a box and brought out something unexpected. A small brown and white bear with curly short hair and what seemed like no eyes lay in his hand. J'onn felt the emotions swell up from the scruffy stuffty, and for a split second, thought the bear was alive. He came to his senses quickly; the projection hadn't overwhelmed him, just surprised him. This is a much beloved toy, he thought. A relic from her childhood. He didn't place a tracker on it.

Instead, he went to a box marked 'clothes' in sloppy writing and pulled out a book. "Why doesn't she put the right stuff into the right boxes?" Flash said, irritated. "There is so much crap crammed in here, I'm beginning to wonder if she keeps _everything_ that comes her way!"

"She probably does," J'onn said. "She seems to like shiny things, or objects that look like trash." He held up a battered bolt smaller than his pinky. "This was found in the rode, and had been run over many times. She saw it because the sun glinted off its surface."

Flash shrugged. "Let's just get this over with. I've never liked snooping in a girl's business, unless she was doing something to 'arouse my suspicions'" He air-quoted, and placed a tracker on several suitcases.

"Arouse your suspicions?" J'onn asked. "What do you mean by that?"

"If she's looking sneaky, or fidgety," Flash said. "Like she wants to tell you something but can't. That's only the bad liars, mind you. If she's a good one, you probably won't be able to tell until you catch her with her red hands all over someone else."

J'onn knew Flash was still upset by his last infidelity. The man just couldn't hold on to someone special, try as he might. He was in the opposite position of Batman. The Dark Knight always seemed to have women wanting to be with him forever, but he pushed them away, unwilling to risk anyone in his line of work.(a) Flash, and Wally West, tried their best to snag a girl who understood him even a little, who shared something of his pain of being in the shadows in the one place he truly excelled: kind-heartedness. J'onn knew better than anyone of the weight on Wally's shoulders.

Wally was the closest thing he had to a best friend, and so he went out of his way to listen to the man's troubles. There wasn't that many, but it still pressed on J'onn's heart to know that they were rarely acknowledged by the others. People so capable of showing compassion and love, he thought, are unable to see the suffering in one of their own. I suppose part of it is Wally's part, with his almost permanent smile and jesting, but he can hardly be blamed for masking his pain.

There is no place in a superhero's life for dwelling on his own pain, when other's is so rampant.

He hides too well. J'onn sighed, and put the last of the trackers on Kendel's belongings. Flash had already finished.

"So, J'onn, what do you think of Missy Packrat?" Flash asked, settling against a relatively empty wall. He sat with his legs crossed, hands on his knees, so it looked like he was meditating. And he was, in a way. Relaxing even the tiniest bit was something of an effort for him, but it was worth it to stop himself from vibrating all the time. It had been happening a lot more than usual, and was definitely getting on his nerves. Despite the heavy load on his mind, Flash smiled because he loved to, not just because he was hiding something.

J'onn pondered for a minute or two. "I cannot tell," he said at last. "She seems like she has a 'prickly' personality, and is anti-social. Other than that, I can only guess."

Flash looked at him curiously. "You didn't dip into her mind to see what's up?" he asked.

J'onn shook his head. "No. There is no real reason not to trust her," he said. "I do not feel it necessary." Besides, he didn't want another Teddy Bear Incident if the owner accidentally projected all that emotion over him again, only a hundredfold. He did not find that thought appealing in the least. Humans always let themselves bottle up emotions until they exploded.

Wally had once compared this grave human stupidity to sticking a soda in a glass bottle in the freezer. _'Thing'll explode like no other, leaving all the other things covered in their mess. Or it'll blow the door open and let in the warmth. Believe me, it sucks.'_

"What happens if this is all a big set up?" Flash persisted. "I don't want another double-crossing, especially not if the girl doesn't know."

Another painful isssue for the Flash. He'd been assigned to watch over a recovering addict of Joker's toxin. That's right. This woman had strange abilities; healing, empathy, tele and pyrokinesis for a start. She had many more, but all were small and written off as good instincts and people skills. But she had been very young when the Joker had snatched her up, and tried to kill her with his gas.

It didn't work, but the girl's body changed, adapted, and began to crave it like a beaten dog craves attention and love from its master.

Joker had used her addiction against her, and forced her to fight against Batman. The Dark Knight had been forced to call in the Justice League, because she had too much power and was half-crazed with withdrawal. The Joker ran, like usual, but left her to die of an addiction that was caused by his own anger at himself. But that's for later. The girl had been one step away from dying when she collapsed. No one knew why, but Flash caught her and protected her from Superman's attack. He picked her up and ran to the nearest hospital. The Justice League was angry, of course, until they heard his reason.

_'I knew her, a long time ago. She was the littlest sister of one of my best friends, but her parents kept her inside most of the time because she had trouble controlling her gifts. If she wasn't careful, people would start loving her at first sight or hating her,' _here Flash's face twisted in disgust. _'It was usually hate, because no one wanted someone like her around. I hate them, but her parents did the best they could. She ran away when she was twelve; I don't think she could take it anymore.'_

That was their first encounter with a mutant. Unfortunately, she had spotted Magneto's eye, one of the strongest mutants alive, and also the leader of several anti-human organizations. Xavier had made some contact, but not enough, and the girl was unknowingly the start of another huge battle of mutants fighting to defend humans, and those who hated them.

Flash thought it was his fault more people had been killed. He had refused to talk with Xavier, wanting her to finish healing before training. Yet she went to Magneto, believing he could help her. In the end, she hadn't died, but no one had seen her since the day twelve mutants had died saving her from herself. Her empathy needed to be trained, but no one could near her to do it. And even though Wally didn't need the empathy to love her, she went from him. He took responsibility for the entire thing, paid for the damages and helped repair them all. No one said anything, which was fine by him. It would have only hurt to do so, and they all knew it. So Flash busied himself in work until he felt ready to go out, and started acting like himself again. Back then, J'onn could hardly tell the difference from the old Flash to the new one, and by the time he'd noticed, the episode was forgotten. J'onn sighed.

"I do not need to perform a mind scan to know that another Jenny is going to happen, Wally," he said. Very rarely did he address someone by their name when they were in his presence, so Wally knew J'onn was serious.

"Fine," he said with a shrug. "Guess that even after five years, some stuff still hurts." Something he would never say in front of the other Justice Leaguers.

"It could take an eternity to heal without her, Wally," J'onn said sympathetically. "Losing someone near to you hurts everyday anew."

"Yeah, like an icepick to the soul."

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(a) This was a halfway-lie. Batman couldn't bring himself to be that open with anyone, enough that he let his guard down. He barely trusted Superman, who was the most noble and great of them all. J'onn knew this. He also knew that Batman had to get over it himself.

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Kendel felt ashamed. She had _relaxed _enough to fall asleep in a car with someone in it. It didn't help that she had gone so long without sleep she couldn't eat without throwing up. She was even more ashamed when she saw the Flash and Martian Manhunter talking. She didn't really see, but she heard them, and they sort of formed a picture in her mind. What shamed her most was the feeling of the Flash's pain in her mouth. It was a horrible flavor, if not unknown to her. When she woke up with a gasp of pain that added to her own aches, Batman glanced at her, alarmed.

"What happened?" he barked. "Did you hurt yourself?"

"No," she lied. "It was just because _I'm_ not used to falling asleep in strange men's cars."

His eyes narrowed and he turned to look back at the road. The implication that _he_ fell asleep in men's cars, presumably after having sex with them was not unnoticed. And neither was the way the girl's eyes flickered when she lied about the pain. He went through the time, counting all the times she'd winced, flinched, twitched or her eyes flickered in pain. Nearly the entire time, and it was made worse by her obvious reluctance to relax or touch anything other than the smallest amount of her seat. Probably afraid of breaking anything on accident. He didn't tell her to relax, though, because she would most likely ignore it. He would too, but rarely did someone tell the frightening Batman to relax.

"Listen to me now, girl, if you don't want to have half the heroes in the Watchtower kill you," Batman said coldly and calmly. "Don't smartmouth them. Not all of them are like me, and able to hold their tempers in check. And try anything nasty with Superman, and be prepared to fight the whole world."

She glared at him. "It's too late for that," she said. "By a long shot. And I'm not stupid enough to insult a man who can crush me with his pinky toe."

Batman pulled to a sudden stop. "We're here," he said. "And if you're so afraid of getting crushed, why are smartmouthing me?"

Kendel looked at him, then grinned. "Cuz I can outrun _you_." And with that, she bolted.

Batman swore under his breath. He ran to the trailer and pounded on the door. "Flash! J'onn! Get the hell out here, now!" he shouted. The Flash was out of there so fast it startled him. J'onn followed at a more sedate pace. "She's run. We need to get her back now."

They set off, each in a different direction. Batman directly after her, J'onn to the sky, and "Flash at an angle. His plan worked, and before she knew it, Kendel ran into a giant red blur. Her feet skidded and her coat flew off into the drag and backwind created by Flash's dash. It was the worst thing that could have possibly occurred at that moment, for when the coat disappeared, her wounded arms appeared. She caught herself before she fell all the way, but only just, and she gave a large gasp of pain as she hit the ground. J'onn and the Batman showed up in time to watch her arms buckle, but not quite give out.

Kendel quickly got to her feet, which meant nothing was wrong with her legs. She bent double, dry-heaving. Flash put the coat back on her, trying not to jostle her. "Why'd you run?" he asked. "You shoulda known you wouldn't of gotten away."

"Had to try, didn't I?" she wheezed. "Had to be free." She retched once more, then fainted.

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Kendel opened her eyes. "Sorry, Professor," she said. "That's all for today. I don't think my throat could handle much more."

Professor Xavier smiled at her. "Not to worry, Kendel, you may continue tomorrow."

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A/N: Sorry, peoples, if you don't like this. I'm sorry.

Okay, so maybe I'm not. Why does it matter? At least you're reading it, right? Oh, and flamers, go on and flame. I'll just spam your email :D

And, emp up their means employer. Flash cuts up words that way, right? And I can have an OC if I _wanna._ XD

signed,

onewhowatches :3


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